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Ahhh…Hot Water at Last!

Matt found us a “home base” for while we’re in Leh. It’s a little hotel a pleasant ten-minute walk from the main part of town where the restaurants and shops are. I like it here because it is quiet, there is a nice view of the neighbor’s garden and surrounding mountains, and the water is SO HOT in the mornings. (Most hotels here have a water heater in the bathroom that you have to turn on 5-20 minutes before you bathe, and often the water, if it even gets hot, runs out before you’re done. Our hotel has one heater for all the rooms that gets turned on in the mornings and doesn’t run out until the afternoon, by which time we don’t need hot water anymore. (If we did, the hotel would bring us a bucket of hot water.) To make things even better, the hotel owner is very friendly and at night time guests gather in the restaurant lobby to talk and the owner sits with them and seems to be having a great time. To appreciate this, you have to realize that the type of hotels we have been staying at are small, about 8-15 rooms, and the price is always negotiable. The owner is often the guy you see sitting outside the lobby all day, and there is often at least one or two hotel staff (or servants) who take care of maintenance, etc. Sometimes the owner is very gruff and business-like, sometimes they are pushy, sometimes they are friendly, but rarely have I met one who truly seems to enjoy his job, such as this owner. It makes our little hotel such a happy place to stay. Being at one place over the course of our time in Leh is definitely a breath of fresh air after moving hotels every night or two. And the hot water isn’t bad either.